How To Destroy A Witness On The Stand

Rachel
Jeantel, 19, the witness on the phone with Trayvon Martin moments
before he died, testifies in court.
Getty Images/Pool

A lawyer for second-degree murder defendant George Zimmerman
recently
attacked the credibility of the prosecution's star witness in
a brilliant fashion.

That witness, Rachel Jeantel, was a friend of Trayvon Martin's
who ended up fidgety
and hostile after the defense poked many holes in
her story. Her testimony ended up being a boon for the defense.

Zimmerman's lawyer, Don West, may have been following a simple
but effective set of rules of cross-examination. We spoke to
legal experts about these rules and other tips for breaking down
a witnesses without breaking the rules. Here's how they do it:

1. Always ask "yes" or "no" questions

"With cross-examination, there are some rules that are never
broken. The first is you always ask close-ended questions," trial
consultant
Dr. Amy Singer tells us.

By asking "yes" or "no" questions, lawyers ensure witnesses can't
explain their answers to put themselves in a better
light. The close-ended
questions lawyers ask often begin with "is it possible" or "isn't
it true" because those questions may be more difficult to answer
with a "no."

A lawyer wouldn't start off by asking a defendant, "Did you
murder your mother?" Singer says. Instead, a lawyer would say,
"Isn't it true you had problems with your mother? Is it possible
there was a knife in the house that day?" It drives witnesses
crazy when they have to answer "yes" without explaining
themselves.

2. Never ask "why"

By asking a question that starts with "why," lawyers give
witnesses the chance to explain themselves and tell their own
story. "Why" questions are open-ended, and lawyers generally
shouldn't ask them during cross-examination.

"It's a game of control," Singer says. "If you ask why, the other
person has control."

3. Point out the inconsistencies in the witness' story

"You want to ask a lot of questions and then point out the
inconsistencies [in their story]," Singer says. "If they're not
prepared for it it's traumatic."

On her first day of testimony, Jeantel was combative and not
particularly polite, Hennington says. She became less adversarial
the second day of the trial, and West asked if she'd been
coached.

"They were able to show that she was someone who was not very
credible," Hennington told us. "The defense was able to make it appear
that she did not like the defense and was very angry towards the
defense."

4. But don't call witnesses flat-out liars

Many states have rules that bar lawyers from calling witnesses
liars,
says Tre Critelli, a lawyer on the Iowa Supreme Court
disciplinary board. It may also be unethical for lawyers to go
around calling witnesses liars.

"There is never a reason to call a witness a liar, even if I
happen to personally believe that the witness is lying. My 'job'
on cross, so to speak, is to have the
jurors themselves see enough that they will call the
witness a liar," Critelli said in an email. "Once that happens,
their mind has been made up and when they go back to the jury
room to deliberate they will discount anything that witness had
to say."

5. Lawyers can still find other ways to trip witnesses up without
calling them names

On cross-examination, lawyers should pay close attention to how
quickly their witnesses talk, and to how quickly they're
breathing, Singer tells us.

"If somebody is a fast talker, you want to speak slowly. If
somebody is a slow talker, you want to talk very quickly," Singer
says. "It trips them up. I'm a fast talker, and if somebody
speaks slowly, I want to kill them."

Lawyers should look at how quickly witnesses breath and try to
push their buttons to make their hearts race. But lawyers need to
be subtle button-pushers. If lawyers blatantly attack witnesses
on cross-examination, they may end up looking like bullies.

"A jury's sympathy will always be with the witness because
they identify with the person ... They expect that the lawyer has
all of the cards and the witness is at a disadvantage, especially
on cross," Critelli says. "So as an attorney you need to
anticipate this and try and figure out a way to get the jury to
turn on the witness — that is come to a belief that they can't
trust the person."